A lot of pics of Panthers are only domestic cats gone wild.These cats are massive and they grow very large in the bush but the giveaway is their head is small compared to the body size and they don't have metre long tails.

It's certainly the case that feral domestic animals become more robust over successive generations, and their wild lifestyle makes them more muscular and powerful as individuals than they would've been if they'd lived their lives as someone's pet.

I've seen feral cats that were huge; but none I'd mistake for a big cat.

Look I am against unnecessary death and destruction like most people but what some people said in those comments really hit home how dangerous this problem is.
The fact that one feral cat can obliterate so many individual animals and birds to the point of threatening the very existence of species was mind blowing.
Then to think there are millions of these feral cats out there doing this damage made me feel sick.

Have a look at the maine coon cat and the size of some of the other trendy cats to own in australia. The poor marsupials dont know what theyre in for. Theyre excellent hunters, likely to roam,twice the size of a normal cat and often attack there owners and kill other cats!

Theyre taking over whole neighborhood blocks and killing anything that moves. Beautiful animal but should not be available here as pets for obvious reasons. Domestic pets gone wild have decimated our wildlife and taken over our waterways and is much worse than we are led to believe.

They should not only cull them but ban imported cats; fish etc altogether.

Yowie bait wrote:Have a look at the maine coon cat and the size of some of the other trendy cats to own in australia. The poor marsupials dont know what theyre in for. Theyre excellent hunters, likely to roam,twice the size of a normal cat and often attack there owners and kill other cats!

Theyre taking over whole neighborhood blocks and killing anything that moves. Beautiful animal but should not be available here as pets for obvious reasons. Domestic pets gone wild have decimated our wildlife and taken over our waterways and is much worse than we are led to believe.

They should not only cull them but ban imported cats; fish etc altogether.

Yowie bait wrote:Have a look at the maine coon cat and the size of some of the other trendy cats to own in australia. The poor marsupials dont know what theyre in for. Theyre excellent hunters, likely to roam,twice the size of a normal cat and often attack there owners and kill other cats!

Theyre taking over whole neighborhood blocks and killing anything that moves. Beautiful animal but should not be available here as pets for obvious reasons. Domestic pets gone wild have decimated our wildlife and taken over our waterways and is much worse than we are led to believe.

They should not only cull them but ban imported cats; fish etc altogether.

I mean cull the feral cats. Not our household pets!

Check out this maine coon from yesterdays courier mail i think. Wait till these start breeding with the ferals!

Let's be real though: Maine Coons are a very trendy breed and have been for years. As such, kittens (when you can get one) are supremely expensive, and as such, the likelihood of dumping one rather than reselling it, would most likely be very low. If one was to escape and go native, then yes, you can count on some big ferals resulting

Shazzoir wrote:Let's be real though: Maine Coons are a very trendy breed and have been for years. As such, kittens (when you can get one) are supremely expensive, and as such, the likelihood of dumping one rather than reselling it, would most likely be very low. If one was to escape and go native, then yes, you can count on some big ferals resulting

Shazz

True Shazz. I never thought of it that way. They are getting more common though so eventually it could be a worry.

We had a lot of trouble with one massive main coon and even a smaller one that were attacking cats in the neighborhood. Ive seen them in action. The big one wrapped around our massive moggie like a boa constricter and sinking its fangs into his head.

We tried to keep him inside but he would find a way out. One day he was cut up so bad, we took him to the vet who dosed him with something. While he was recuperating, the smaller one came over the fence and attacked him! Ive never seen anything like it.

I did some reading and noticed a few breeders being lambasted by other breeders for speaking out about them. Apoarently theyre likely to stray and need a large territory. Ive also come across some very tame maine coons. Apparently they have a big appetite!

Yowie bait wrote:Have a look at the maine coon cat and the size of some of the other trendy cats to own in australia. The poor marsupials dont know what theyre in for. Theyre excellent hunters, likely to roam,twice the size of a normal cat and often attack there owners and kill other cats!

Theyre taking over whole neighborhood blocks and killing anything that moves. Beautiful animal but should not be available here as pets for obvious reasons. Domestic pets gone wild have decimated our wildlife and taken over our waterways and is much worse than we are led to believe.

They should not only cull them but ban imported cats; fish etc altogether.

I mean cull the feral cats. Not our household pets!

Hi Yowie bait,
Cull the feral cats definitely but when I see a domestic cat with an indigenous species of bird or mammal in its mouth then they join their feral cousins. Harry Butler, our well known West Australian environmentalist and naturalist once said there are two things he kills when he comes across them in the bush one is rats and the other is cats. This will get me offside with cat lovers but when I'm driving by and see a squashed moggie on the road I somehow don't feel much remorse.

A friend of mine lives in an old forest milling town of Jarrahdale in WA. She came out one night to investigate a hell of a commotion going on in the backyard and reported seeing a huge black bear (don't know what she was on) jumping over her back fence after destroying the bird aviaries. It was either a huge feral cat or hybrid cougar. I have heard these cats at night when I was living in Mundijong not far from Jarrahdale and the reason I doubt it was a feral cat was because of the growl, very reminiscent of a leopard or mountain lion. It was enough to send the horses in a paddock in complete panic mode.

sensesonfire wrote:A friend of mine lives in an old forest milling town of Jarrahdale in WA. She came out one night to investigate a hell of a commotion going on in the backyard and reported seeing a huge black bear (don't know what she was on) jumping over her back fence after destroying the bird aviaries. It was either a huge feral cat or hybrid cougar. I have heard these cats at night when I was living in Mundijong not far from Jarrahdale and the reason I doubt it was a feral cat was because of the growl, very reminiscent of a leopard or mountain lion. It was enough to send the horses in a paddock in complete panic mode.

Sounds like a big cat if it had the horses stirred up. Doubt theyd be bothered by a feral but yeah i dont really know.

I think with the cats and other ferals, its just another luxury part of our culture. Cats and dogs make great companions but really do we need to bring these exotics in the country?

If we were serious about protecting our native fauna then pets would be made a lot harder to come by and much stricter ownership laws and fines would be enforced. Our waterways are a mess too with the tilapia, carp and south american cichlids out of control.

And that's exactly why my cat is 100% indoors-confined. I'm out in the scrub and kidding yourself that your cat won't kill (or be killed) is not being a responsible cat owner, but I'm pretty sure I'd be in the minority of owners out here, so it's frustrating to say the least. I understand though, that cats are expected to earn their keep by killing mice and rats, but the owners are clearly turning a blind eye to the 'bycatch' factor :[